Enterprises can now easily create custom private blockchains while benefiting from on-going enhancements to the Stratis Platform.

Stratis has officially announced the launch of its alpha version of Sidechains that allows enterprises to rapidly create private or public blockchains linked to the Stratis blockchain (mainchain), while keeping the flexibility to tailor any blockchain implementation to specific business needs. Some of these new features enables consensus, block size and privacy provisions.

Building sidechains in C# makes it easier to integrate into existing enterprise architectures and opens the door previously blocked due to programming language barriers. Stratis sidechains in C# builds upon the established .NET framework, language and ecosystem. Therefore, it is more readily poised for wider adoption.

Stratis Sidechains solve a significant challenge facing enterprises concerned about implementing blockchain solutions due to the lack of privacy and control inherent to most existing public blockchains. An enterprise lacking the ability to influence changes in public infrastructure to suit their specific needs is a valid cause for concern.

Stratis CEO Chris Trew states, “Sidechains provide a means to quickly provision, sandbox and deploy a bespoke blockchain tailored to specific enterprise processes. Because Stratis sidechains remain linked to the well-established Stratis mainchain, enterprises can be certain their blockchain implementations will continue to benefit from enhancements made by our core team of highly-experienced developers.”

Stratis Sidechains operate by ‘locking’ Stratis tokens on the Stratis mainchain as a value proxy for enterprise tokens forged on any sidechain. This overcomes the complexity of transferring digital assets between different blockchains, offering flexibility and confidence that any sidechain digital asset will always be backed by the correct amount of Stratis tokens.

Chris Trew further explains, “As an example, if an enterprise wants to improve efficiency by moving invoicing or asset tracking to a blockchain solution, it’s likely that they will not want to publicize that data. That’s when a private sidechain becomes a flexible solution that’s quick to test and deploy, as well as easy to maintain. Sidechains are a critical step in making blockchain accessible to enterprises wanting to benefit from blockchain while retaining full control of their business processes and privacy.”

The flexibility of a sidechain also helps to improve scalability, a long-running challenge of decentralized computing. Aside from leaving the mainchain free to exchange funds, Stratis Sidechains make it possible to specify both the block size and block interval, increasing the number of transactions in each block and/or reducing the time between each block.

The Stratis Sidechains Alpha release follows the recent news of Stratis Smart Contracts in C#, which allows a wide range of decentralized applications to be built upon the Stratis Platform.